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Giant Panda

What animal is black and white and loved all over the world? If you guessed the giant panda, you're right! The giant panda is also known as the panda bear, bamboo bear, or in Chinese as Daxiongmao, the "large bear cat." Actually, its scientific name means "black and white cat-footed animal." Giant pandas are found only in the mountains of central China. They live in dense bamboo and coniferous forests at altitudes of 5,000 to 10,000 feet. The mountains are covered in heavy clouds with torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year. Giant pandas are bear-like in shape with striking black and white markings. The ears, eye patches, legs, and shoulder band are black. The rest of the body is whitish. Adults are 4 to 6 feet long and may weigh up to 350 pounds, about the same size as the American black bear. However, unlike the black bear, giant pandas do not hibernate and cannot walk on their hind legs. The giant panda has unique front paws-one of the wrist bones is enlarged and elongated and is used like a thumb, enabling the giant panda to grasp stalks of bamboo. They also have very powerful jaws and teeth to crush bamboo. While bamboo stalks and roots make up about 95 percent of its diet, the giant panda also feeds on fish and occasionally small rodents. It must eat 20 to 40 pounds of food each day to survive, and spends 10 to 16 hours a day feeding. Until recently, Washington DC's National Zoo housed Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, perhaps the most well known giant pandas in North America. A gift from China to the people of the United States, they were presented as a gesture of amity and goodwill to President Richard Nixon when he visited China in 1972. Ling-Ling, at age 23, died in December 1992. Giant pandas are among the rarest mammals in the world. There are probably less than 1,000 left in the wild. Although adult giant pandas have few natural enemies, the young are sometimes preyed upon by leopards. Habitat...

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...The GiantPanda Conservation Project
Although pandas are highly regarded and have a relatively low number of natural predators, they are an endangered species. Humans have severely threatened the panda's existence also so that now there are fewer than 1,600 of them left in the wild. This peaceful creature with a distinctive black and white coat is adored by the world and considered a national treasure in China (WWF, 2013). The bear also is of special importance to the World Wildlife Fund. The panda has been WWF's logo since its founding in 1961. This paper will examine the effectiveness of, and problems related to, the giantpanda conservation efforts.
The rarest member of the bear family, pandas live mainly in bamboo forests high in the mountains of western China, where they subsist almost entirely on bamboo. They must eat from 26 to 84 pounds of it every day. China’s Yangtze Basin region, which holds the panda’s primary habitat, is the geographic and economic heart of this booming country. An increasing number of roads and railroads are being created throughout the forest, which isolates panda populations and prevents mating. Forest destruction also reduces pandas’ ability to access the bamboo they need to survive. The Chinese government has established more than 50 panda reserves. However, only...

...(Harris, 2007).. Golden monkeys, tigers, and pandas are rare and protected animals in China. In China, however, the most famous endangered species of wild animal is definitely the panda
The panda is an endangered species of wild animals, and it can only be found in China. So people can say that panda is China's unique wild animal, so the protection of this animal is essential. The habitat of pandas lies in the provinces within China’s “Great Opening of the West”. The place is so fragile and unique that people can only run tourism on a small scale as the only economic activity. Therefore, it is extremely essential to create more nature reserves for the protection of pandas, even though some of them are not working effectively. If we do not pay most of the attention to allocating these areas as habitat for pandas, these places will definitely be used for producing wood and or agricultural crops. Recent survey in 2004 found that many threats including deforestation and persistent poaching interfere with the long-term survival of this endangered species. (Harris, 2007). For instance, Western development for pandas makes Chinese poachers see business opportunities and their harmful behaviors have seriously affected the survival of this precious animal.
Human development has affected wildlife survival environment. Because of the population explosion and...

...The GiantPanda Endangerment
Yu Yin
The giantpanda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is an animal that is loved all over the world. It is also known as the panda bear, bamboo bear, or, in Chinese, as Daxiongmao, the “large bear cat”. This bear-like animal has black fur on its ears, around its eyes and nose, on all of its legs, and across its shoulders; the rest of its body is white. Due to the distinctive appearance of the giantpanda, this animal has long been considered a symbol of China. Giantpandas are found in the mountains of central China in the rainy bamboo forests of Shanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan. These mountains are covered in heavy clouds, and torrential rains, or dense mist, occur throughout the year. However, “Giantpandas now are an extremely rare mammal in the world, with probably less than 1,000 left in the wild” (Pretes 2009). There are two main causes of the giantpanda becoming endangered: natural and human. The natural reason why the number of giantpandas is not large is that the reproductive capacity of the giantpanda is much worse than that of any other mammal. Moreover, human destruction of habitat and poaching are two main threats to pandas. “The price of panda fur rises, which can bring...

...Protection of the GiantPanda
In the 1940s, the Chinese government began initial conservation efforts to protect the GiantPandas. The idea was to set aside safe areas where the animals would be protected in their natural habitat.
During the early 1960s, China's State Council called upon the provinces to set aside land for the protection of China's wildlife. Sichuan province responded quickly with a plan to create reserves to protect GiantPandas and other animals in the area.
Today there are approximately 40 panda reserves across Southwestern China. Some are Nature Reserves providing a safe habitat for wild GiantPandas, like a National Park Other reserves protect the wild GiantPandas while having scientific research centers to study their behavior and for breeding captive GiantPandas.
The reserves are intended to protect the Giant Panda's natural habitat. Logging is extremely detrimental to the habitat so in 1998 a logging ban was implemented by the Chinese government to slow the destruction
Poaching and illegal logging are still problems in some areas. Although GiantPandas were once hunted for their pelts, most GiantPandas that are injured or killed by poachers today are inadvertently harmed when...

...animals that are facing the crisis in extinction are pandas. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are only approximately 1600 pandas in the wild and 200 in captivity in the whole wide world which is consider a significantly small amount. Human act is one of the major reasons that pandas are endangered. Massive deforestation is one of the human acts that endangers pandas. Forests are cut down to build houses and factories which also cause the habitat loss of pandas’ main source of food: bamboo. Poaching is also another human act that endangers the species of panda. Pandas are poached illegally by people to get their valuable fur. The fur can be sold with a relatively high amount of money which is the reason why people take the risk of getting the sentence of imprisonment to poach pandas. Besides that, pandas have a very low birth rate. Female pandas ovulate once a year, for 2-4 days on average, and give birth between 95 and 160 days after mating. Only one or two pandas generally will be born each time they give birth. This shows that the chances of baby pandas to be born are very low. So, it is very important to identify the reason on what endangers the panda species and solve them. In this essay, I would like to provide and discuss solutions on how to solve the major issues...

...The GiantPanda, indigenous to the remote mountainous regions of Central China, is now referred to as the poster child for all endangered species. But whose fault is this? Is it our fault as human beings with our need to control and manipulate the environment; is it the panda’s fault for not possessing the adaptation mechanisms necessary for survival? Or is this simply just an act of God or the destiny of these pandas since they have nothing to offer humans or the environment. Whichever you choose to deduce the argument too, it is proven that these animals are at risk due to habitat loss, but let’s not forget that these pandas are living organisms just like us humans, who are faced with the harsh reality that one day their whole race would die out. Could you imagine if your family was a species at the brink of extinction due to the lost of your homes?
Most people are familiar with the GiantPandas, they are usually one of the main attractions at the zoo, and who could forget their distinctive black and white coloring. Their ears, muzzle, eyes, shoulders and legs are black while the rest of their body is white. Their thick hair keeps them warm in the cool, wet mountain zones and they live within the forest. These pandas have an insatiable appetite for bamboo, it is said that they eat up too thirty ponds of bamboo each day (National Geographic Society 1996), this could be...

...GiantPandas
The endangered bears, native to China, continue to evolve in their attempt to survive. However, the bamboo-eaters are more threatened today by population decline caused by human interaction and global climate changes than ever before. In order to save giantpandas, many zoos and organizations have taken on panda projects, both in China and abroad. Giantpandas are an international symbol of conservation, and the United States has eagerly embraced the need to save this rare and dying species from extinction; pandas have previously resided at 13 zoos across the nation, but now only four major zoos continue to develop successful programs to increase the panda’s chance of survival.
Approximately 1600 wild pandas live in the mountains of southwest China where they are protected from poachers and hunters by the Chinese government. Giantpandas are a national treasure in China and are honored like gods (Pandas). Chinese leaders have given giantpandas as gifts to other countries since 685 A.D. when pandas were given to Japan as a sign of peace (Gish 29). However, pandas were not introduced to the western world until March of 1869 when French missionary Armand David sent a panda skeleton and pelt to a museum in Europe (WWF). On...

...U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
GiantPanda Facts
(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
Giantpanda. John J. Mosesso
What animal is black and white
and loved all over the world? If you
guessed the giantpanda, you’re
right!
The giantpanda is also known as
the panda bear, bamboo bear, or in
Chinese as Daxiongmao, the “large
bear cat.” In fact, its scientific
name means “black and white catfooted animal.”
Giantpandas are found only in
the mountains of central China—
in small isolated areas of the
north and central portions of the
Sichuan Province, in the mountains
bordering the southernmost part of
Gansu Province and in the Qinling
Mountains of the Shaanxi Province.
Giantpandas live in dense bamboo
and coniferous forests at altitudes
of 5,000 to 10,000 feet. The
mountains are shrouded in heavy
clouds with torrential rains or
dense mist throughout the year.
Giantpandas have existed since
the Pleistocene Era (about 600,000
years ago), when their geographic
range extended throughout
southern China.Fossil remains also
have been found in present-day
Burma.
Giantpandas are bears with
striking black and white markings.
The ears, eye patches, legs and
shoulder band are black; the rest
of the body is whitish. They have
thick, woolly coats to insulate them...